The UK’s best wine is made somewhere you might not expect, but it is as good as anything from France, Italy, or Spain. Vagabond’s Solena has been in the works by head winemaker Jose Quintana since 2018, with the first batch released in 2022.
It is multi-award-winning, scoring gold for best still white at the Independent English Wine Awards (IEWA), as well as best English innovative still white and best still at the WineGB Awards. The £35 Solena has a “complex and heady” nose of orange, grapefruit, dried yuzu, ripe peach, smoke, incense, and aged black tea. The palate is a “fusion” of spiced peach and dried citrus peels. Vineyard magazine’s reviewer said the Solena made him go “a little weak at the knees”, saying it is “so unique and also so tear-jerkingly beautiful it defies comprehension”.
He added: “Toothsome, invigorating, kaleidoscopic and with a peacock’s tail of tone and shimmer, this landmark wine ought to inspire even the most risk-averse dullard to have a bloody go.”
The IEWA said: “The wine is unfined and unfiltered and has a colour and complexion that looks quite unlike any other wine I have tried. It’s an absolute knock-out release!!”
Vagabond topped the IEWA’s 2025 scoreboard with five gold trophies, seven silver, and five bronze for a total of 90 points, beating out older, more traditional wineries.
The company is the UK’s largest urban winery, with a 6,000 sq ft space in Canada Water, London. The space has a working 100-tonne winery, a Vagabond bar with the brand’s signature self-pour wine machines, and multiple event and private hire spaces.
All of Vagabond’s vineyards are within two hours of London. Grapes are hand-harvested and transported to the winery, where they are processed in a mix of oak and stainless steel to build texture and mouthfeel in the wines.
Wine tourism in the UK is booming, with a 55% increase in visitor numbers since 2022, according to WineGB – reaching over 1.5 million wine tourism visits last year.